


i just want you for my own (more than you could ever know)

by sapphfics



Category: Barbie - All Media Types, Barbie as the Island Princess (2007)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Falling In Love, Holidays, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21865762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphfics/pseuds/sapphfics
Summary: “There is nothing wrong with you,” Ro swears to her. “It’s your mother who’s wrong. And I have an idea.”“What is it?” Luciana asks. “Because I don’t know how I’m going to face her this winter.”“What if I came back home with you as your girlfriend?” Ro offers. “Would that convince your mother? Would she leave you alone?”“I don’t know,” Luciana admits, but she considers this, sitting up in excitement. “But the look on her face will be priceless enough. I’ll put it on all my Christmas cards.”Or: In which Ro goes home with Luciana for the holidays as her fake girlfriend in order to convince Luciana’s mother she’s actually a lesbian, and they fall in love along the way.
Relationships: Luciana/Ro | Rosella (Barbie as the Island Princess)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 72





	i just want you for my own (more than you could ever know)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SkyRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyRose/gifts).



> written for the come talk to me on [sapphic stocking stuffers ficathon](https://elasticella.dreamwidth.org/25483.html), join us !! <3333
> 
> (note: i’m not american so if i got some of the terminology wrong, i’m sorry! also idk what state this is set in. pick ur poison.)

Ro can tell that Luciana is dreading going home for the holidays. 

She’s typically better at reading animals than reading people, but she’s Luciana’s roommate, and Luciana hasn’t come out from under her comforter since classes ended three days ago. Ro is also a light sleeper and is always privy to Luciana’s mother phoning her at four am every night or calling having to call in favours from a friend who works in IT when Luciana’s mother signs her up for dating websites against her will. 

Frankly, Ro could make a War and Peace sized novel on the amount of bullshit Luciana’s mother has put her through. It makes her sick. 

Some time ago, Luciana had kissed another girl at a party and someone had taken a photo of them before posting it online, and in retaliation, her mother had made her go on a date with Antonio. 

Antonio is the son of some rich businessman, and is a man who’s rarely even attending classes claiming he’s going off on so called ‘adventures’. Ro doesn’t want to know what that means, and she only ever glimpses him sometimes during their shared biology lectures. 

But Ro had been awoken in the middle of the night to find that Luciana had returned from the date in tears. 

“He isn’t horrible or anything, but he kissed me once and I just started shaking. It was awful. I’m so embarrassed.” She had sobbed. Ro had held her close and stroked her soft brown hair. “Why can’t I make myself like him?” 

“Oh Luciana,” Ro had whispered. She pulled the comforter up to Luciana’s chin. “Maybe you’re a lesbian.”

Luciana hadn’t known what that word meant at the time, but instead of just asking Ro, she spent the next week or so trapped in the library reading up on various aspects of LGBT history. Luciana likes to go above and beyond. Ro loves that about her. She came back to their dorm room in a striking lesbian pride shirt over her usual vintage purple gown. 

“Woah. You look beautiful,” Ro commented, looking up from her book just as the words start blurring in front of her. “Seriously, Luciana, you’re glowing. Not that you don’t always look wonderful, I just—” 

“Thank you,” Luciana replied and grinned at her.

Luciana’s smile has faded now, though, Ro observes as she throws her heavy bag onto her bed. She‘s six weeks into a biology major and she already has enough homework to form her very own library in their small dorm. 

“What is it?” Ro asks. “What’s the matter?”

“I was so happy about finally figuring myself out so I called my mother and I—“ Luciana’s hands are shaking, she’s clutching a pillow on her lap. “My mother doesn’t believe that I’m a lesbian.” 

“What?” Ro sits beside her friend. 

Luciana stands up suddenly and begins paces up and down their dorm room floor right in front of the lesbian pride flag Ro had bought for her. “She told me ‘you need to still see men, because I don’t think you’re one way or the other.’ She’s going to sign me up for a dating website full of divorced dad’s next, I think. I’m so tired of her not believing me! I’m an adult now, why can’t she accept me as I am? What’s wrong with me?” 

“There is nothing wrong with you,” Ro swears to her. “It’s your mother who’s wrong. And I have an idea.” 

“What is it?” Luciana asks. “Because I don’t know how I’m going to face her this winter.”

“What if I came back home with you as your girlfriend?” Ro offers. “Would that convince your mother? Would she leave you alone?” 

“I don’t know,” Luciana admits, but she considers this, sitting up in excitement. “But the look on her face will be priceless enough. I’ll put it on all my Christmas cards.” 

“I’ll bring my camera,” Ro adds. “It’s settled then. Do you mind if I call my mom a second? I need to tell her.”

“Will she mind? I know you don’t go home very often, she’ll probably want to see you.” 

“She’ll have me all of New Years,” Ro assures her, pulling out her cracked phone. “Besides, you’re way more important.” 

-:-

“You found a girlfriend!” Her mom says happily. Ro can hear her smile over the phone. “I’m so happy for you baby! Your dad and I want to meet her!” 

“She’s just my friend, I’m just helping her out,” Ro says. “She is really pretty though. And kind. And she loves to read. And she has a cat. And she’s gay.”

“Mhm, just friends, sure,” Her mom replies, knowingly, before blowing Ro a kiss and hanging up the phone. 

-:-

Ro packs light; she only brings a trunk with her full name scratched out on it that she’s had since childhood. 

“All I have, I carry with me,” She quotes when Luciana looks at her worriedly. Luciana is an English major, Ro knows that she'll appreciate it. “I don’t need much, I promise.” 

“Alright,” Luciana says. “The flight is at midnight, but I like getting to things early. Is leaving at two pm alright with you? I paid for your ticket, don’t worry.”

“Oh! I love flying,” Ro remarks. “I bagsy the window seat.”

Ro decides not to mention having nearly drowned twice over my life, so she’s not fond of boats. 

As they get into a cab which will take them to the airport, Luciana is holding her hand. The driver gives them a cursory smile, mentions something about having a lesbian niece. So it’s working. That’s good. 

It then occurs to Ro that she’s never seen Luciana in the tight black leggings and slightly heeled black boots she’s donned now; it’s too modern for a girl always dressed to the nines in vintage who Ro has known her has. She’s still wearing her trademark purple sweater, though, and her long hair is still framing her shoulders. 

“Did you bring more vintage stuff in your bag?” Ro asks. She usually spends most car rides staring out the window and watching the scenery, but Luciana is anxious and she wants to help her. “I’d love to see your vintage holiday get-up.”

“No. Mother doesn’t like my fashion,” Luciana reveals. “She says it will dispel men’s advances. She’ll hate the leggings, too, though. She calls them slut clothes. I’ve got this miniskirt thing and tights in my carry on.”

“No offence,” Ro comments. “But I really don’t like your mother.” 

Luciana sighs. “To be honest, I’m only decent to her because of my potential inheritance money. If she doesn’t waste it all on another botched assassination plot, again.” 

“Your mother’s an assassin?”

“Worse,” Luciana says. “A Republican.” 

Ro makes a disgusted noise and Luciana giggles. “I knew it!” 

-:-

During the flight, they quiz each other. 

“Full name?” 

Ro hesitates. Luciana nudges her shoulder. “Come on, Ro, we can’t have been dating all year and I don’t even know your full name!”

“It’s Rosella,” Ro sighs. “Rosella Paladia. Yours?”

“Luciana Apollonia,” Luciana says. “Mother changed our name after my dad passed away. I don’t even know his name. She won’t tell me.”

“I’m sorry,” Ro huddles closer to her and Luciana falls asleep on her shoulder. “Hey, since you call me Ro, can I call you Luci?”

Luciana scrunches up her nose. It’s adorable. “Please, god, no.” 

The first time Luciana kisses her is as the plane lands. Ro doesn’t want her to stop. 

-:-

There is a driver waiting for them at the airport. He spelt Ro’s name wrong, somehow. It makes Ro laugh but he looks at her angrily so she shuts up. 

If she’s honest, after everything she’s heard about Luciana’s mother, she’d sooner get a hotel. But Luciana’s mother is at least not being outwardly hostile as of yet, since she could have just let them walk the fifty miles to the palatial mansion that she called home. 

Meeting Luciana’s cat, Pearl, softens the blow of meeting her mother somewhat. Pearl likes her instantly, and Ro begins speaking to her as if she can understand what she’s saying. It doesn’t take long before Luciana’s mother descends the staircase. 

“You weren’t lying then,” She says before looking Ro up and down disgustedly. “You must be Rosella Paladia. You will address me as Ariana or nothing at all.”

“Uh,” Ro says. She pulls out her camera and snaps a picture. It prints and she hands it to Luciana behind her back. “Okay. Lovely to meet you. You can call me Ro—” 

“I’d sooner call you nothing,” Ariana says. “I’ll be gone for most of your time here. Don’t do anything that would ruin my meticulous decorating or else I’ll make you pay for it. And please get that camera out of my face!” 

“Yes mother,” Luciana promises and she hasn’t let go of Ro’s hand. Ro steps in front of her, protectively. 

Her mother leaves soon after that. 

“Well,” Ro says. “Could have gone worse. I have a surprise for you.” 

“What is it?” Luciana asks excitedly. 

Ro pulls out an ugly Christmas sweater in the colour of the lesbian pride flag. “For you! I have one too, but it’s bisexual pride colours.” 

“Mother will hate it,” Luciana says. “It’s perfect!” 

She kisses Ro on the check and Ro melts. 

-:- 

Luciana’s bedroom is exactly how Ro imagined it. 

Not that she’s spent a lot of time imagining Luciana’s bedroom. Seriously. She hasn’t. 

The walls are coloured purple, and the bed is queen sized. There is a harp in the corner, gathering dust. Most of the walls are covered by shelves. Ro wonders if she’s read all those books and she probably has. 

“My mother won’t be back for days at least,” Luciana says. “You don’t have to sleep in here with me.” 

“I don’t mind,” Ro says and then blushes. “I get really cold at night.” 

“Oh,” Luciana replies. “Alright then.”

The arrangement works very well and Ariana’s face when she sees them clad in sweaters and kissing on a soft pink chez langue is priceless. 

-:-

Luciana reads the card aloud to herself, and then to Ro. It might be the biggest card that Ro has ever seen. 

“To my dearest daughter Luciana and my beloved Arianna, Happy Holidays! I hope you will allow me to visit soon. I’m so sorry I made you leave. Whatever I did to you, Arianna, I would like to make up for it. I know my heart condition made it hard for you to stay, but I’m better now, and I would love to see Luciana.” Luciana falls to her knees and clutches the card like an anchor at sea. “Luciana, I hope you read this and know that I love you very much, and I’m so sorry I couldn’t be around very much. I would love to see the woman you’ve grown into. I last saw you as a baby, didn’t I? The doctor’s didn’t think I could have children with my condition, but you were a miracle. I would love to meet you sometime. If you would like to, please call me.”

“Oh my god! Are you going to call him?” Ro asks. “I think you should.”

But Luciana pushes open the door to her mother’s study and slams her hands on the desk. Her mother is startled. 

“You told me my father was dead!” Luciana hisses. “And all this time, he was just a phone call away. And I spent all my life living with you and your constant attempts to control me! I’m gay, mother. Like it or not, that’s who I am. And if you won’t accept me, I will go and live with my dad and not speak to you again. I’m going to call him and he is going to come and get me, and if you don’t change your ways and realise all the abuse and harm you’ve done to me, I will never see you again. Is that clear?” 

But her mother just smiles. “Fine. Get out.” 

Luciana slams the door behind her, shaking the whole house, and kicks down her mother’s large Christmas tree for good measure. 

“Luciana,” Ro says. “Are you—“

“I just—“ Luciana starts. “Will you help me pack, Ro? I need to call my dad.” 

“Anything you want,” Ro replies and takes Luciana’s hand and leads her up the winding staircase. 

Luciana’s father arrives quickly, but Ro doesn’t hear whatever Luciana told him to make him so panicked. 

He’s a lot older than Ro expected; though she had a suspicion that Ariana’s type was old rich men who would die under suspicious circumstances soon after they tied the knot. His cane makes a dent in the fresh snow, but his smile when he sees his daughter could power the whole city for a thousand years. 

“I missed you so much,” He says and Luciana runs into his arms and hugs him. When she lets him go, he turns to Ro. “I’m sorry, who are you?” 

“This is Ro,” Luciana says. She squeezes Ro around the waist. “My girlfriend. So. Yeah.” 

Luciana’s father shakes Ro’s hand vigorously. “Glad to meet you, Ro. I’m glad my daughter has such a lovely girlfriend.”

It’s official, then. They’re dating. Ro smiles. 

“I’m honoured to be her girlfriend,” Ro responds and Luciana grins. 

Luciana doesn’t cry until they’re in her father’s house. Ro holds her in their shared bed until she falls asleep. Ro dreams of drowning, of being saved, of falling in love with a girl with hair the colour of a double base. 

-:-

“So,” Ro says. “Do you wanna spend holidays at mine next year? My parents really want to meet the girlfriend I’ve bragged so much about on Facebook.”

Luciana laughs again and kisses her. “I’d love to.”

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me on [tumblr](https://dykeelsa.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/dykeelsa) if you feel so inclined! let’s be friends <333 also sorry if this sucks (also the stuff ariana does is based on shit in my real life sooo yeah)


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